SuperRealCustom#0_5063
New member
Howdy all -
Nice place ya got here!
This is my first post, and I've got a doozy to start off with.
My first guitar was a Super Real Custom that my dad bought new while on a military trip to Japan - apparently a 1980 EG-800C from all the catalogs I've been able to find online, and from the serial # which you can see is part of my handle. It was stolen many years ago, and I'm hoping that one day it'll find it's way back to me, perhaps even with the help of you guys if I'm lucky.
Here's the twist which made my SRC a bit different than the rest: best I can tell, it had all the appointments and whatnot that would indicate it was a Greco. However, it had the word "Domino" in gold lettering on a black plastic or metal plate which could very possibly have neatly covered a Greco logo (letter "D" was enlarged and the rest was slanted upwards a la Greco or Gibson). I'm 99.9999% sure it came on the guitar this way, and that Dad didn't have this added on a whim (sadly, he's no longer on this mortal coil so I can't confirm this either, but he really had no time or reason to bother with something like that).
I know there was a line of Fender-ish, MIJ, Domino-branded electrics sold in the US in the early/mid 60s by Maurice Lipsky Music here in NYC but think they disappeared before 1970. So, unless they were still around in the early 80s and just ordering custom one-offs and risking the wrath of customs, I'm pretty sure this wasn't for the same company.
I've only recently found a fleeting reference (no pic, unfortunately) to one other Domino LP clone from 1980 on a Japanese vendor's site in Google's cache, but they did not respond when I sent an inquiry about it as they no longer export to the US. So apparently these do indeed exist in the home country, but also in very small numbers.
My question to you guys, who've apparently spent much more time on the historical end of these than I have:
Has anyone else seen (or owned) a Domino/Greco, or have a better idea of what the story is?
I've run this by an indie dealer in Japan who specializes in Grecos as well as with Noriko at Ishibashii, but haven't gotten much more info than I already have - despite them both knowing passable English, unfortunately, the language barrier seems to be still somewhat of an issue in getting the finer points across via e-mail. The indie guy thinks it's impossible that Greco would do this, but Noriko seems to think it was in fact a name used for an export line (although she never confirmed if Greco actually did export Super Reals or not - everything I've read says they didn't).
It's late right now, will provide more details in later posts, and apologies in advance that I don't have a website w/more info up at the moment.
Feel free to ask any questions in the meantime - any info or speculation is appreciated!
Nice place ya got here!
This is my first post, and I've got a doozy to start off with.
My first guitar was a Super Real Custom that my dad bought new while on a military trip to Japan - apparently a 1980 EG-800C from all the catalogs I've been able to find online, and from the serial # which you can see is part of my handle. It was stolen many years ago, and I'm hoping that one day it'll find it's way back to me, perhaps even with the help of you guys if I'm lucky.
Here's the twist which made my SRC a bit different than the rest: best I can tell, it had all the appointments and whatnot that would indicate it was a Greco. However, it had the word "Domino" in gold lettering on a black plastic or metal plate which could very possibly have neatly covered a Greco logo (letter "D" was enlarged and the rest was slanted upwards a la Greco or Gibson). I'm 99.9999% sure it came on the guitar this way, and that Dad didn't have this added on a whim (sadly, he's no longer on this mortal coil so I can't confirm this either, but he really had no time or reason to bother with something like that).
I know there was a line of Fender-ish, MIJ, Domino-branded electrics sold in the US in the early/mid 60s by Maurice Lipsky Music here in NYC but think they disappeared before 1970. So, unless they were still around in the early 80s and just ordering custom one-offs and risking the wrath of customs, I'm pretty sure this wasn't for the same company.
I've only recently found a fleeting reference (no pic, unfortunately) to one other Domino LP clone from 1980 on a Japanese vendor's site in Google's cache, but they did not respond when I sent an inquiry about it as they no longer export to the US. So apparently these do indeed exist in the home country, but also in very small numbers.
My question to you guys, who've apparently spent much more time on the historical end of these than I have:
Has anyone else seen (or owned) a Domino/Greco, or have a better idea of what the story is?
I've run this by an indie dealer in Japan who specializes in Grecos as well as with Noriko at Ishibashii, but haven't gotten much more info than I already have - despite them both knowing passable English, unfortunately, the language barrier seems to be still somewhat of an issue in getting the finer points across via e-mail. The indie guy thinks it's impossible that Greco would do this, but Noriko seems to think it was in fact a name used for an export line (although she never confirmed if Greco actually did export Super Reals or not - everything I've read says they didn't).
It's late right now, will provide more details in later posts, and apologies in advance that I don't have a website w/more info up at the moment.
Feel free to ask any questions in the meantime - any info or speculation is appreciated!